


white picket fences

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 07:58:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14588526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: After having dinner with the Harrisons, Carol and Therese go for an evening walk...





	white picket fences

**Author's Note:**

> I thought of this in relations to my actual reality of walking home from work and the fact that the met gala’s theme this year was based on religion culture...

Carol followed Jeanette outside of the house onto the porch and stood by the wooden banister. The blonde shared her pack of cigarettes and offered to light one stuck between the older woman's lips. As the women inhaled and smoked, the front door swung open and revealed Therese stepping out, hugging her arms tightly against her chest.

"Hey." Carol smiled. 

"Hi," Therese greeted back. "Before we start walking, I would like to grab my sweater in the car..."

"All the doors should be unlocked, sweetheart," Carol responded, turning her head away slightly to blow out a thin tail of smoke. Jeanette took a long drag of her own cigarette between her lips, peering at Therese Belivet closely. She watched the young woman make her way down the porch steps, through the graveled pathway, towards the pale yellow Packard. Carol was watching, too, and tossed a few loose curls with her fingers, anxiously.

" _What?_ " she finally said, desperate need for Jeanette to talk.

Jeanette pulled her cigarette out and blew smoke sideways from the corner of her mouth. "There's something funny about you two."

"How so? We're roommates," Carol laughed. In order to protect her feelings for Therese, she had to make Jeanette believe that she was the one who was sounding ridiculous.

"That's just it. You've been living with this girl for a long time now. She's single. You're divorced. Both working jobs you earn and spend and share meals with no men in the picture. And the way you look at her," Jeanette snorted.

"I look at Therese just fine," Carol shot back. Then she quickly stubbed out her cigarette onto the wooden beam before tossing it deep inside one of the shrub bushes below. Jeanette leaned back, holding her cigarette up, and turned to face Therese, who was now approaching them; slipping both her arms through the knitted green plaid sweater.

"All ready now?" Carol asked her, taking a step closer.

"Yes," Therese mumbled. She felt Jeanette's bird-like eyes fall upon her as soon as she turned her back around to descend the porch steps with Carol this time. Therese held her breath the whole time she walked along the sidewalk and then exhaled loudly soon as both she and Carol took a sharp corner on the right; leaving the street the Harrisons' lived at. 

"She knows about us," Therese heard herself say out loud. 

"Who? Jeanette?" Carol relaxed her shoulders and stared directly ahead.

"What have you told her?"

"The facts. That we are two women who live together, because we are roommates."

"You act like there's nothing wrong with that," Therese said, softly, trying to keep in perfect step with Carol's strapped heels.

"And why should it be?" Carol said with light demand. "We are human, Therese, who do normal, everyday human life things. Our gender should not traumatize us, or other people. Jeanette has her suspicions, but let her keep them. We shouldn’t worry about it. Or her, for that matter."

Therese didn’t say anything now. She looked at the different colors of houses and trash barrels lined up beside the mailboxes and noticed that all of them provided the same thing: A white picket fence.

"Hm," Therese went.

"Go on," Carol said.

"Every house owns a white picket fence," Therese explained. She pointed towards one brown home with a porch swing, American flag pole hanging from the side, and a lawn mower laid out behind a white picket fence. Then she pointed towards a light blue house with tulips planted in small plastic window boxes and a child's rocking horse left in one corner of the yard behind a matching white fence. 

"Interesting," Carol concluded. 

"Is that what life's all about? Fresh cut mowed lawns, and white picket fences?" Therese questioned. 

Carol laughed at her. She was enjoying this evening walk more and more. Then the two woman started to play a game of iSpy. Carol saw a blue watering can perched on top of a rocking chair and made Therese guess for it.

"Is it the car parked in that driveway?"

"No, smaller," Carol smiled.

"Is it the square on the flag?" 

"Bigger," Carol said.

"Oh, the watering can! On that chair!"

"Yes, darling!"

Therese guessed something green. Carol pointed down at the grass.

"No," Therese giggled.

"Is it... Your sweater?" Carol slowed her walk down to a stop and playfully tugged a piece of it.

"That's right," Therese said, sheepishly. 

"You're not very good at this game, Therese," Carol said, smiling wider. 

"Not at all," Therese agreed. They stared at each other, waiting for the next move. Carol reached over and took Therese by the hand. They walked further down towards the fire station and catholic church. Carol pulled Therese behind the old stone building filled with sermons and prayer, and began to kiss her gentle on the mouth with both hands holding her face. Their bodies were pressed together with Therese's back resting up against the wall. 

"Goddamn it, Carol, I love you so much," Therese sputtered out the moment their lips broke apart. 

"We're behind a church, darling," Carol reminded her, wrapping her fingers underneath Therese's ribboned blouse. Therese pulled her down for another kiss; clinging onto her sweet, perfumed neck.

 _She didn’t care_.

**xxxx**


End file.
